Benares was built in the late 1850s for a retired officer of the British army who had served in India, James B. Harris.

Spanning 1854 to 1954, the Jalna series tells the story of the Whiteoak family who lived on a southern Ontario estate.

De la Roche's family endured the illness of her mother, the perpetual job searches of her father, and the adoption of her orphaned cousin while being moved 17 times.

De la Roche went on to write about the Whiteoak family for the next 30 years, establishing a place for herself in popular Canadian literature.

[1] By 1961, when de la Roche died, the series had sold more than eleven million copies in 193 English and 92 foreign editions.